Abbr. Enth.

I’m sure it seems like I’m really angry at religions/religious people if you read this blog much, but I assure you that’s not the case. What I’m really lobbying for is a better separation of church and state. I attack creationists and “Intelligent Design” proponents because they’re trying to get their religion taught in science classes, which diminishes the value of science. And I really like science.

One thing that I’ve always found frustrating is the widespread desire to put the 10 Commandments in schools, courts, and other public places. I’ll often hear complaints like “But they’re good values to live by, even if you’re not religious!” Well that’s just crap, and I’m going to show you why. Here are the 10 Commandments, in all their glory (as I was taught them, Catholics have a slightly different version but the point is the same).

The 10 Commandments
1. You shall have no other gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your father and mother
6. You shall not kill
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or your neighbor’s possessions

So let’s take them one by one:

1. You shall have no other gods before me
I don’t think this one requires any explanation. Our government is not a theocracy, and while many of the founding fathers were Christians I believe we can all accept that America was populated early on by settlers trying to escape the tyranny of a theocracy. Also, many of the same founding fathers signed the Treaty of Tripoli. According to Article 11 of said treaty:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

And just to let you know how big of a deal that treaty was, here’s what John Adams had to say about it:

Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof.

I, for one, don’t want to see people fleeing America because it’s becoming a theocracy. I hear Christians talking about how terrible the religious oppression of China is all the time. Do we want to become the next China? I didn’t think so.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
This one fits in pretty well with number one above. Since we are not a theocracy we cannot impose laws or rulings based on what form of delusion anyone worships. This is pure religious dogma, and has no place in schools or other government facilities. It promotes intolerance and prejudice.

3. You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain
To avoid repeating myself I’m going to extend this one a bit, because I often hear it used as implying any sort of swearing as wrong. The part of me that admires linguistics and wordsmithing finds swearing fascinating, especially how people can get completely offended by a single word, regardless of its context. I don’t have a problem with swearing, but swearing is generally associated with rudeness or anger, but in such cases it’s not the words that are the problem, it’s the attitude. It’s completely possible to be just as vocally offensive without swearing if you’re doing it in an angry, violent, or rude manner. To imply that a government should take a stance on what words are okay to use and what words are not is ridiculous. Swearing is offensive because people allow themselves to be offended by it, and that’s a cultural issue, not a moral issue.

4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
What really gets to me about this one is that most religious people don’t even follow it. Life is too hectic to take an entire day off these days. Sure, maybe people set aside one day to relax and have fun more than the other six days a week, but they still do work (washing dishes, cooking dinner, etc.) which is expressly forbidden on the Sabbath. Not to mention that it’s pure religious dogma, appealing to the Abrahamic religions and no others.

5. Honor your father and mother
While I do believe that people should honor their parents, I think it should be because the parents have earned the respect for it, not because it says so in a book. Heck, even Jesus speaks against this commandment when he says in Luke 14:26:

“Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and his brothers and sisters and his wife and children and also himself, my disciple he cannot be.”

So we’re supposed to both honor and hate our parents? In my mind that’s a contradiction, but I’m sure there are plenty of fundamentalists willing to explain it away.

6. You shall not kill
This one needs a big asterisk and pages worth of fine print after it, considering that in the chapters and books following the reception of the 10 Commandments God orders killings and genocide repeatedly. I think I’m going to have to defer to George Carlin on this one:

Murder. But when you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, Cashmire, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take thou shalt not kill. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who’s doin the killin’ and who’s gettin’ killed.

and

Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.

7. You shall not commit adultery
Frankly I can’t think of anything bad to say about this. Sure it excludes polygamist groups, but so does the government, and not for religious reasons (as far as I can tell). Although, I guess this one gets down to marriage being a religious ritual that was adopted by the government. And since the promise to remain faithful to your partner is part of marriage, I guess you could make the argument that this is just a form of lying.

Some people take this one more step and say that any non-marital sex is considered adultery, and I think that is a load of crap. I do think that teens have a ton of pressure to have sex young and before they can really comprehend all of the possible consequences, but I don’t think that gives anyone the right to condemn people who do know what they’re doing but aren’t married.

8. You shall not steal
Again, this is one I can’t say much against, though the meaning of the commandment can change depending on how you define stealing. I think that televangelists and faith healers telling you that God wants you to give them money counts as stealing, but I’m sure there are many who would disagree with that.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
The way this one is worded I can agree with. Don’t go making up crap about people. That’s not the same as saying you shouldn’t lie though. If somebody bursts into my house and puts a gun to my head and asks if there’s anyone else in the house I’m not going to tell him my wife is hiding in the closet, and I’m not going to consider it wrong to lie to him. This comes down to the same thing as number five, that respect has to be earned. I’m not going to lie to you if I respect you and I’m not going to lie about you if I respect you.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or your neighbor’s possessions
There’s nothing wrong with wishing you have what somebody else has. In fact that’s a big driving force in the economy. Marketing revolves around making you want something that you don’t have. It’s what motivates us to go out and study, to learn a trade, and to be successful. What I believe this commandment was trying to avoid is having people killing each other for the others stuff, but in that case it’s not the coveting that’s wrong, it’s the killing.

It’s hard to see how people can actually think this list is in any way relevant to our lives, unless they want to make the USA a theocracy. Luckily, through some grade A investigative reporting, our good friend Stephen Colbert found out:

That’s right. People lobbying for this type of thing don’t even know what the 10 commandments ARE! It’s hard to think that a guy of that intelligence can get into congress, but then again, just look at who the voters are…

I usually don’t try to get political here, but I can’t resist this quote:

“The separation of church and state is critical and has caused our democracy and religious practices to thrive.”
- Sen. Barack Obama